Plenty of new names keep popping up every other series for West Indies cricket: Kyle Mayers, Jayden Seales, Rovman Powell, Keacy Carty, Gudakesh Motie are names a casual cricket fan will not be familiar with.
The recent Test victory in Australia is significant, mainly because this was achieved by a very inexperienced team and also the fact that this had come after 27 years. Add to the context that the West Indies have not won a test match against Australia since 2003.
This was one of those gripping test matches that make people tweet “Long live Test Cricket”. The West Indies team played bravely and passionately and few heroes emerged among them. Shamar Joseph being one among them. Remember the name. Shamar Joseph. Or should you?
Remember Carlos Brathwaite?
Happily, Carlos is remembered for that four consecutive sixes that made West Indies a two-time T20 champion, or sadly, only for the same reason. His heroics was voted greatest men’s T20 World Cup performance by fans in a fan vote conducted by ESPNcricinfo.
Honestly though, it is a bar too high even for the best ever players to replicate let alone Carlos. But match winning performances would be expected every now and then for someone who showed so much promise. The woe of West Indies Cricket of recent past has mirrored his and few others’ career – more or less:
- Players of immense promise are identified either through domestic games, or by few eye-catching performances in international games or a T20 league.
- Players receives huge fan fare, leading to positive speculations, and being regarded as the next big thing.
- Few games go by without any notable performances.
- The waiting extends with an occasional epic performance or a few bowling spells that show some glimpse of that promise.
- The next big performance comes but few and far between.
- Few years go by and they are not picked in the West Indies squad either because of poor games, poor discipline or preference of T20 leagues over bilateral series.
- They would perform well in some domestic T20 leagues where more attention will be received if said performance is from an IPL game.
- Meanwhile West Indies Cricket will perform poorly the next few games and in a desperate attempt, recall those exiled players back into the squad in order to spark some inspiration. Ideally just before a major ICC tournament.
- They would then win a series or two and then go on to criticize the cricket board for dropping them. This criticism is magnified if they win a World Cup.
- The board then drops them in the next few games and their international careers never prosper there after.
This cycle has been going on for a while with players like Carlos, Shimron Hetmyer. Andre Russel, Sunil Narine and few others. The pattern has become so obvious that it is astonishing that West Indies Cricket still seem to either not realize this or has realized this but has no answer to stop it.
Despite this, West Indies have managed to win 2 major trophies during these turbulent times on the back of some great players like Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Bravo. But this just highlights how T20 form of the game has been preferred over other forms.
This is what Shamar had to say after the famous test win against Australia.
“I will always be here to play Test cricket for the West Indies. I am not afraid to say this live. There will be times when T20 might come around and Test cricket will be there … but I will always be available to play for the West Indies no matter how much money comes towards me.”
It brings a sense of hope that maybe, Test cricket is becoming relevant, or more importantly for West Indies Cricket, players are starting to realize that playing for their respective nations is more important than the instant cash grab that are the domestic T20 leagues.
But alas, we have been dreaming and hoping for the last decade and a half, only for things to become progressively worse and more complicated (missing the 2023 ODI cricket world cup). Could we finally see a turnaround that can bring back the past glory years only a living few have still fond memories of?
We can only dare to dream again.